Second Protest Held Outside Closed Detroit Library Branch

Protesters again rallied today outside the Lincoln Branch of the Detroit Public Library to object to the library commission's November 15 decision to close the Lincoln branch and three others (as LJ reported).

The protest, which drew about 20 participants according to numerous media reports, was organized by a group called By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). A December 22 protest at the same branch, the day the branch officially closed, led to about 10 arrests, although no arrests were reported today.

"This library is one of the anchors of this neighborhood," Shanta Driver of Detroit, the national chairwoman of BAMN, told the Detroit Free Press.

Driver told WXYZ.com that BAMN had reason to believe that everything would be removed from the library today, which would kill any hope of its reopening.

"This library, which has been a safe house, cannot become a drug house!" she told WXYZ. MyFoxDetroit.com reported no sign that anything had been moved earlier today.

Library officials declined to comment.

"We actually don't have a comment," A.J. Funchess, a library spokesperson, told the Free Press. "All the details are on our Web site about the closures. All those questions have been talked about over and over again."